By the time anyone questioned the truthfulness of a married couple running as U.S. Senate candidates for opposing parties, the media had already taken the bait.

William James Dean and his wife, Sarah, have an unlikely story. James the Republican financial adviser and Sarah the Democratic fashion designer this month set out to race through the primaries and meet on the ballot next November. They did their coming-out interview together in their local Havre newspaper. The Associated Press picked it up a few days later. And then television.

The heavy-hitters in Montana’s U.S. Senate race were already tearing each other down. The Deans? Well, they love each other. They are a team no matter what, maybe even conspirators.

“Another Republican has announced he’s running to unseat Sen. Jon Tester next year — and his wife is challenging Tester as a Democrat,” reported one broadcast, which described the couple as first-time candidates.

The Deans aren’t who they said they are, at least not exactly. William James Dean is no newcomer. In the last election cycle Dean, who currently goes by James, filed to run for president in California under a different name, Daniel Lane Dean, the name that appeared on his Air Force Academy diploma, and his Hawaiian state bar exam, and a divorce record that shows him being served dissolution papers while working for the Judge Advocate General Corps at Guantanamo Bay.

Sarah Dean has used no fewer than four names, each affiliated with an online business, or a Christian ministry, a collection of children’s books, or a crowd-funded charity.

The Deans aren’t who they said they are, at least not exactly. William James Dean is no newcomer. In the last election cycle Dean, who currently goes by James, filed to run for president in California under a different name, Daniel Lane Dean, the name that appeared on his Air Force Academy diploma, and his Hawaiian state bar exam, and a divorce record that shows him being served dissolution papers while working for the Judge Advocate General Corps at Guantanamo Bay.

Sarah Dean has used no fewer than four names, each affiliated with an online business, or a Christian ministry, a collection of children’s books, or a crowd-funded charity.

Though I have to admit, spouses running for different parties doesn’t strike me as that strange. I know couples who not only vote, but volunteer for different parties, and it doesn’t appear to create any problems for them at all … they’re typically the first to laugh at it. Its no different than spouses belonging to different religions.

What holds a couple together is, or at least should be, much stronger than political (or religious) ideologies. And in fact, my guess is that being in different political parties is very common; off the top of my head I can think of over a dozen such pairs in my circle of friends, and some of them have been married for decades.